Joanna Hogg’s dark relationship drama The Souvenir won the Sundance 2019 World Cinema Dramatic prize on Saturday night (2) as Chinonye Chukwu’s death row executioner tale Clemency took the US Dramatic grand jury prize.
One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang earned the corresponding documentary award, and Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s Macedonian beekeeping film Honeyland won the World Cinema Documentary award.
In the audience awards, Knock Down The House featuring political firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed the US Documentary prize, while Brittany Runs A Marathon took the corresponding US Dramatic award, Austrian eco-thriller Sea Of Shadows took the World Cinema Documentary prize, and Danish drama Queen Of Hearts prevailed in the World Cinema Dramatic category.
“Supporting artists and their stories has been at the core of Sundance Institute’s mission from the very beginning,” said Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford. “At this critical moment, it’s more necessary than ever to support independent voices, to watch and listen to the stories they tell.”
“This year’s expansive Festival celebrated and championed risk-taking artists,” said Keri Putnam, the Institute’s executive director. “As the Festival comes to a close, we look forward to watching the stories and conversations that started here as they shape and define our culture in the year to come.”
“These past ten days have been extraordinary,” said John Cooper, Sundance Film Festival director. “It’s been an honor to stand with these artists, and to see their work challenge, enlighten and charm its first audiences.”
The awards ceremony marked the culmination of the 2019 festival in which 121 features and 73 short films selected from 14,259 submissions screened in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, alongside work in the new Indie Episodic category, panels, music and New Frontier.
Of the 28 prizes awarded on Saturday to 23 films comprising the work of 27 filmmakers, 13 (56.5%) were directed by one or more women, eight (34.8%) were directed by one or more people of colour, and one (4.3%) was directed by a person who identifies as LGBTQI+.
In other key wins, The Infiltrators won the NEXT audience award, Joe Talbot won the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic for The Last Black Man In San Francisco, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert took the corresponding Directing Award: US Documentary for American Factory, and directors Mads Brügger won in the World Cinema Documentary section for Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Denmark-Norway-Sweden-Belgium), and Lucía Garibaldi won in the World Cinema Dramatic promgramme for The Sharks (Uruguay-Argentina-Spain).
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic went to Pippa Bianco for Share, while that film’s Rhianne Barreto won the US Dramatic special jury award for achievement in acting. Krystyna Janda received the World Cinema Dramatic special jury award for acting for her role in Dolce Fine Giornata (Poland).
Click here for the full list of winners.
No comments yet